


Launch

by Cameron_McKell



Series: Upon Further Review [44]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8953495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cameron_McKell/pseuds/Cameron_McKell
Summary: (Originally posted on Tumblr, now archived on the AO3.)Ignoring visitors is rude. Natasha makes easy money





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written after Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released, but before Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“What, exactly, are they trying to accomplish?” Sam wondered out loud. Next to him, Steve shrugged helplessly.

“I have no idea,” he replied, and the two of them watched as the younger boy – the only person they’d met so far that shared Thor’s outfit choice of a cape – walked over to his slightly taller redheaded companion, and looked over his shoulder at the sheets of paper he was scribbling over, fast enough Sam had the fanciful thought that they were smoking.

On the next hill over in the park, Tony was helping Jane look over the boys’ arrival site, while Bruce reviewed any video footage that caught the event. They’d banished everyone over to this hill as soon as their equipment arrived, so for most of the Avengers, the call to assemble had turned into a thankfully non-violent day in the park.

The two boys – Kid Flash and Robin were the names they’d given – hadn’t taken kindly to being relegated to the sidelines, and had been plotting _something_ from the moment they’d been handed a pen and pad of paper to keep them occupied.

From the way they kept eying it, Sam figured their plan somehow involved the wooden-board-and-rope swing tied around one of the branches of the tree they were all picnicking under.

“Twenty bucks says they end up breaking the swing,” Clint announced, as the boys gathered up the papers hastily, then folded them so they could fit into the Flash-kid’s handy-and-literal glove compartment and Robin’s belt pack.

“You’re on,” Natasha replied with a smirk, and Sam wondered what she’d picked up on that the rest of them had missed.

The pair approached the swing, casually talking about elephants and popcorn from what he could gather, and all non-science inclined Avengers held their breath.

Robin sat down on the swing, then carefully pulled out his cape until he wasn’t sitting on it, and began to swing.

After he’d built up an even rhythm, Kid Flash started to push him so he’d swing higher.

They continued in this way for several minutes.

Eventually Robin stood on the swing.

“All that buildup, for this?” Clint complained, now that the likelihood of the swing being destroyed was dropping.

“Wait for it,” Natasha chastised serenely.

Eventually, instead of pushing Robin forward from his return swing, Kid Flash ran forward into the wooden board between Robin’s legs, using the momentum of his run to push the swing forward, kicking his legs in the air for a moment as the swing carried him upward and his feet left the ground. He pulled his feet up as the two flew backward on the swing, then ran forward on the ground again, over and over.

“Were they doing math to make sure the swing could hold both of them?” Steve asked eventually, admittedly impressed but also a bit confused.

“Wait for it,” Natasha repeated, a bit more gleeful than serene this time.

Sam was about to give in and ask her what they were waiting for, when it happened.

The brightly-colored Kid Flash reached out with his feet as the swing began to swoop forward again, but instead of running the way he had before, he jolted forward like a rocket, pulling the swing and his friend with him. The rope arms of the swing turned his forward momentum into rotational momentum, and the whole swing wrapped around the tree branch, and Kid Flash ran along the ground _even faster_ as they came around again. Then, on the third pass, when their forward arc hit just the right point Robin launched from the swing with a cackle that could have doubled as a battle cry, flying through the air like his namesake, and landing with deceptive lightness on Tony’s shoulders, like a kid propped up on his father’s shoulders to see above a crowd at a parade.

Tony yelped loud enough to probably impede traffic nearby, then staggered a few steps as Robin flipped over his head to land in front of him.

They were too far away for Sam to hear their conversation, but evidently Clint and Natasha could read lips, because they both cracked up laughing.

When Robin waved his portion of the papers in a flabbergasted Tony’s face, everyone else joined in on the laughter.

A semi-strangled cheer went up from the tree, and Sam suddenly remembered Kid Flash.

He was stuck up in the tree, wrapped up with the branch and swing, but thankfully upright. Catching Sam looking his way, he waved, sheepish but unrepentant now that his friend had made it past the science barrier with the notes he’d written, and Sam shook his head with one last chuckle.

 “Can we keep them?” Natasha asked, turning to Steve, eyes wide and beseeching. She batted her eyelashes for more effect.

“No,” Steve replied automatically, but a bit wistfully. Sam understood.

He kind of wanted a sidekick, now, too.


End file.
